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Rosa Luxemburg Stagnation and Progress of Marxism (1903)

Rosa Luxemburg

Language:
English
Status:
Complete work
Authorship:
Written by the author
Condition of the text:
Clean text
Extent:
~2,740 words · 13 passages
Cite this work
  • APARosa Luxemburg. (n.d.). Rosa Luxemburg Stagnation and Progress of Marxism (1903). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rosa-luxemburg/rosa-luxemburg-stagnation-and-progress-of-marxism-1903
  • MLARosa Luxemburg. "Rosa Luxemburg Stagnation and Progress of Marxism (1903)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rosa-luxemburg/rosa-luxemburg-stagnation-and-progress-of-marxism-1903.
  • ChicagoRosa Luxemburg. Rosa Luxemburg Stagnation and Progress of Marxism (1903). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/rosa-luxemburg/rosa-luxemburg-stagnation-and-progress-of-marxism-1903.

What it is about

Stagnation and Progress of Marxism (1903): why Marx's disciples had advanced so little beyond him.

Context and history

Luxemburg's answer is uncomfortable and still valid: because the movement asked of theory only what it needed day to day, and without demand there is no research. English translation from the Marxists Internet Archive. The original is German — or Polish, depending on the piece; for citation, the original. This is an article or a congress speech, not a book: its size in the catalogue is the size of the actual piece.

Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.

Rosa Luxemburg: Stagnation and Progress of Marxism (1903) Rosa Luxemburg Stagnation and Progress of Marxism (1903) Written: 1903. Source: Karl Marx: Man, Thinker and Revolutionist , edited by D. Ryazanov. Publisher: International Publishers, New York, 1927. Translated from German: Eden and Cedar Paul. Republished: New International, Vol. VI No. 7 (Whole No. 47), August 1940. pp. 143–144. Transcription/Markup: Dario Romeo and Brian Baggins. Proofread: Einde O’Callaghan (July 2013). Online Version: Rosa Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2000. In his shallow but at time interesting causerie entitled Die soziale Bewegung in Frankreich und Belgien ( The Socialist Movement in France and Belgium ), Karl Grün remarks, aptly enough, that Fourier ’s and Saint-Simon ’s theories had very different effects upon their respective adherents. Saint-Simon was the spiritual ancestor of a whole generation of brilliant investigators and writers in various field of intellectual activity; but Fourier’s followers were, with few exceptions, persons who blindly parroted their master’s words, and were incapable of making any advance upon his teaching. Grün’s explanation of this difference is that Fourier presented the world with a finished system, elaborated in all its details; whereas Saint-Simon merely tossed his disciples a loose bundle of great thoughts. Although it seems to me that Grün pays too little attention to the inner, the essential, difference between the theories of these two classical authorities in the domain of utopian socialism, I feel that on the whole is observation is sound. Beyond question, a system of ideas which is merely sketched in broad outline proves far more stimulating than a finished and symmetrical structure which leaves nothing to be added and offers no scope for the independent effort of an active mind.

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